About this puzzle
Baseball has a vocabulary all its own, and this puzzle samples the best of it. There are positions (pitcher, catcher, shortstop), places around the ballpark (dugout, bullpen, mound, foul pole), and the plays that make a crowd stand up, like a double play, a stolen base, or a grand slam. The notes add the history, including why scorekeepers write a K for a strikeout.
Little League families can bring it to long tournament weekends, and teachers find it handy around opening day or during the World Series in October. A lot of these words have slipped into everyday English, too, so it can spark a fun talk about phrases like out of left field and touching base. Longtime fans should still learn a thing or two from the foul pole note.
The 28 words in this puzzle
Every word, with a short note. Handy for teaching the vocabulary before or after solving.
In every version (12)
- Bat
- Major league bats must be one piece of solid wood, usually maple, ash, or birch, no more than 2.61 inches thick and 42 inches long. Many youth leagues allow metal bats.
- Catcher
- The catcher crouches behind home plate and signals which pitch to throw. All that protective gear is jokingly called the tools of ignorance.
- Diamond
- The infield is a square with bases 90 feet apart. Viewed from home plate, it looks like a diamond, which is how the whole field got its nickname.
- Dugout
- The dugout is the team bench area along the baselines. Many are built partly below field level so players and coaches don't block the view of fans behind them.
- Glove
- Fielders wear leather gloves to catch the ball. In baseball's early days, players caught barehanded, and gloves slowly became standard in the late 1800s.
- Helmet
- Batters wear a hard helmet to protect the head from pitched balls. Major League Baseball made batting helmets required in 1971, though some veterans were allowed to keep caps.
- Home Run
- A home run usually means hitting the ball over the outfield fence in fair territory. If a batter circles all the bases while the ball stays in the park, it is an inside-the-park home run.
- Inning
- A regulation game has nine innings. In each inning, both teams bat until they make three outs, with the visiting team batting first.
- Outfield
- The outfield is the grassy area beyond the infield, covered by the left fielder, center fielder, and right fielder. Outfielders need speed and strong throwing arms.
- Pitcher
- The pitcher throws from a rubber slab set 60 feet, 6 inches from home plate. That oddly specific distance was established in 1893 and has not changed since.
- Strikeout
- Scorekeepers mark a strikeout with a K, a shorthand traced to nineteenth-century baseball writer Henry Chadwick. A backward K means the batter struck out looking.
- Umpire
- The home plate umpire calls balls and strikes, while base umpires rule on plays at the bases. Major league games normally use four umpires.
Added in Medium and Hard (8)
- Bunt
- A bunt is a soft tap of the ball with the bat held out level. A sacrifice bunt gives up the batter's own out to move a runner to the next base.
- Fastball
- The fastball is the most common pitch in baseball. Many major league pitchers throw it in the mid-90s in miles per hour, and a few can top 100.
- Grand Slam
- A grand slam is a home run hit with the bases loaded, scoring four runs on one swing. The term was borrowed from the card game bridge.
- Infield
- The infield is the dirt and grass area in and around the four bases. The first baseman, second baseman, shortstop, and third baseman are the infielders.
- Mound
- The pitcher's mound is a raised dirt hill in the center of the infield. Major League Baseball lowered it from 15 inches to 10 inches in 1969 to help hitters.
- Scoreboard
- A scoreboard shows the runs scored in each inning, plus hits and errors. Chicago's Wrigley Field still uses a scoreboard in center field that is updated by hand.
- Shortstop
- The shortstop plays between second and third base, where many ground balls are hit. Daniel Doc Adams, a player in the 1840s and 1850s, is credited with creating the position.
- Walk
- A batter who takes four pitches outside the strike zone earns a walk, officially called a base on balls, and goes to first base for free.
Added in Hard (8)
- Ballpark
- Baseball stadiums are often called ballparks. Boston's Fenway Park, which opened in 1912, is the oldest ballpark still used by a major league team.
- Bullpen
- The bullpen is where relief pitchers warm up before entering the game. Nobody is certain where the name came from, and several competing explanations exist.
- Curveball
- A curveball is thrown with forward spin, so it dips as it nears the plate. Throwing someone a curveball has become an everyday phrase for a surprise.
- Double Play
- A double play records two outs on one play. Scorekeepers number the positions, so a ground ball from shortstop to second to first is written 6-4-3.
- Foul Pole
- Despite the name, the foul pole marks fair territory. A fly ball that hits it is a fair ball, and if it is beyond the fence, it is a home run.
- Knuckleball
- A knuckleball is thrown with almost no spin, so air currents make it flutter and dance on the way to the plate. It is famously hard to hit, and just as hard to catch.
- Stolen Base
- A runner steals a base by advancing while the pitcher delivers the ball. Rickey Henderson holds the major league career record with 1,406 stolen bases.
- World Series
- The World Series is the championship of Major League Baseball. The first one was played in 1903, when the Boston Americans beat the Pittsburgh Pirates.
A few facts to share while you solve
- "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" was written in 1908 by Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilzer. Neither had been to a major league game when they wrote it.
- An official Major League Baseball ball is held together with 108 double stitches of red thread.
- Home plate is a five-sided slab of white rubber, 17 inches wide at the edge facing the pitcher.
Four versions of this puzzle
Pick a version with the buttons above the grid. Each one has its own grid and answer key, and your progress on each is saved separately in this browser.
| Version | Words | Grid | Directions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Easy | 12 | 11 × 11 | The 12 most familiar words, reading forward across and down. |
| Medium | 20 | 14 × 14 | Twenty words across, down and diagonally. No backwards words. |
| Hard | 28 | 16 × 16 | Every word, in all eight directions including backwards, with look-alike filler letters. |
| Large print | 12 | 11 × 11 | The 12 most familiar words on a small grid with big letters. No backwards words. |
Hard and large print versions
Hard baseball word search: all 28 words on a 16 × 16 grid, hidden forward, backward, up, down and along both diagonals, with filler letters borrowed from the word list. Print it without the word list for an extra challenge. Play the hard version, or see all hard word searches.
Large print baseball word search: the 12 most familiar words on a 11 × 11 grid, printed with big letters and a big word list, and no backwards words. Play the large print version, or see all large print word searches.
Printing this word search
Press Print / PDF above the puzzle. You get a clean one-page sheet with the title, the grid, a word list with tick boxes, and optional name and date lines. The answer key prints on a second page. Prefer a file? Download it as a PDF or an image to print later or drop into a worksheet. Whatever version is showing on screen is the one that prints, and the large print version prints with bigger letters.
How to play online
- Find a word from the list in the grid. Scanning for its first letter is the quickest way.
- Drag across the word from its first letter to its last. On a phone, you can also tap the first letter, then the last.
- Found words get highlighted and crossed off. Stuck? Hint circles the first letter of a word you haven’t found.
Read the full guide to solving word searches, with tips that make big grids much faster.
Questions and answers
What baseball words are in this puzzle?
Easy starts with 12 basics like bat, glove, and home run, and Hard uses all 28: positions like pitcher, catcher, and shortstop; parts of the ballpark such as dugout, bullpen, mound, and foul pole; and plays and outcomes including bunt, walk, strikeout, double play, and grand slam. The World Series rounds it out for fans who follow the October playoffs.
Is the baseball word search good for a Little League team?
It is a good fit for players around eight and older, who will know many terms from practice. Coaches can use it during rain delays, and the word notes teach rules players sometimes misunderstand, like why a ball hitting the foul pole is actually fair.
Can I use it for a lesson on baseball idioms?
Yes. Many baseball terms became everyday expressions, including home run for a big success, curveball for a surprise, and touching base for checking in. After solving, students can list baseball idioms, including ones from the word list, and explain what each one means outside the ballpark.
Is there an answer key for this baseball word search?
Yes. Choose Print / PDF above the puzzle and keep “Add an answer key page” ticked. The key prints on its own page, with every word highlighted. While playing online, Show answers outlines any words you haven’t found yet.
Can I print copies for my class or group?
Yes. Every puzzle on BetterWordSearch is free to print for personal, classroom, library and homeschool use. Print as many copies as you need. To change the words or make several different versions of the grid, use the word search maker.
What changes between Easy, Medium, Hard and Large print?
Easy hides the 12 most familiar words, reading left to right and top to bottom. Medium uses 20 words and adds diagonals. Hard hides all 28 words in every direction, including backwards, with look-alike filler letters. Large print uses the same words as Easy on a small grid and prints with big letters.
